Bicentennial literary map honors Indiana writers

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Published: Friday, 10 June 2016 15:34

INDIANAPOLIS — Many Hoosier writers have put Indiana on the map, so maybe it’s only fair that the Indiana State Library has decided to return the favor.

The Indiana Literary map was created by Indiana State Library in partnership with several literary organizations to feature outstanding writers in the history of Indiana, as well as, contemporary writers.

“There is a lot of great and talent that exists in the state now and always has been, but maybe a lot of people aren’t aware of all the authors that have come from Indiana or have made Indiana their home,” said Travis DiNicola, executive director of Indy Reads, a non-profit bookstore and publisher in Indianapolis.

The map features 200 Indiana writers from different literary genres. Suzanne Walker, director of Indiana Center for the Book, said the map was created not only to feature great Indiana writers but also to celebrate Indiana Bicentennial. That is why the committee of the map decided to include 200 writers on the map.

“When I was hired three years ago to take over the Center for the Book, one of the things they asked me right away was if they thought it was feasible for us to start working on a new map for the bicentennial,” said Walker.

This Indiana Literary Map is not the first one in the history of Indiana. A group for Indiana English teachers created two literary maps for Indiana writers in 1956 and 1974. Walker said the two old literary maps offered a general guideline for the new map. It also provided useful information in the creation of the new map.

As a literary center, Indiana has been home to many renowned writers.

DiNicola said Dan Wakefield, the Hoosier-born author of the bestselling novel “Going All the Way,” told him that at one point back in the 1920s, half of The New York Times best-selling authors were from Indiana.

“People like Kurt Vonnegut and Dan Wakefield are just legends. Dan’s work, I think, is very underappreciated, [particularly] for the work that he did as a journalist back in the ‘50s and ‘60s as well as his fiction writing,” said DiNicola.

Electronic version of the 1816-2016 Literay Map of Indiana. Image provided by Indiana State Libarary.

DiNicola also said this map will give readers a chance to discover new authors they did not know about or learn that one of their favorite authors came from Indiana.

Walker said one of the biggest challenges in the creation of the map was to decide who should be listed on the map. The original pool of candidates had more than 450 writers and the map committee had to narrow it down to 200.

“We looked at a lot of different things. Were they widely published? You know, some people have certainly published something, but maybe they have done it in a self-published way, or maybe they have done it… [with] just a small number of items,” Walker said.

The committee wanted to see if the authors were known out of Indiana. The map committee also considered whether the writers had won awards or appeared on best-seller lists.

While the literary map highlighted variety of writers, the committee also wanted the map will to represent the entire state.

“Not every county, but almost every county does have an author that’s representing that county,” said DiNicola.

Hoosier writers, understandably, liked the idea of a map celebrating the state’s literary history.

“There is a terrific amount of variety in Indiana writers,” said Barbara Shoup, the executive director of the Indiana Writers Center.

“Good writers in Indiana are writing fiction, and poetry, and creative non-fiction, that is universal in its nature, in the way it deals with complexity of human spirit,” she said.

Shoup said the Midwest sensibility was another reason that made Indiana home of so many writers. The Indiana landscape often almost becomes a character in the work.

“People write from who they are, from what we made of and we are made of Indiana,” Shoup said.

Shoup should know. She’s written several books about Indiana, including her novel “An American Tune.” The main character in the novel is a Hoosier girl who attended at Indiana University in the 1960s.

“It came very directly from who I am as a Hoosier, who I am as a person who grew up and has been in Indiana all my life,” Shoup said.

Readers can find the electronic version of the Indiana Literary Map on the Indiana State Librarywebsite. Schools and libraries can also order printed copies of the map here.

Article writer Gary Qi is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.